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Sunday, 14 February 2010

Popstars the rivals: Sugababes party with The Saturdays for JLS birthday bash

Aston Merrygold is a lucky boy.
The JLS singer celebrated his 22nd birthday in style last night - with the help of girl rival bands Sugababes and The Saturdays.

The girls put aside any competitive streaks and partied with the boys at the Mayfair hotel before moving on the nightblub Alto.

The pop stars may have worn different outfits but they all had one thing in common - showing off their toned legs.

Mollie King, 22, Vanessa White, 20 Rochelle Wiseman, 20, Frankie Sandford, 21, of The Saturdays, piled into a cab and headed for Alto with a friend.
Frankie, sporting a white dress, appeared to have been the victim of a botched fake tan and not even a bright orange bag was enough to detract from her patchy thighs.

Sugababe Amelle Berrabah wore a similar outfit to Frankie while new band member Jade Ewan opted for black.
There was no sign of fellow bandmate Heidi Range though.
The band first formed in 1998 and have undergone four different line-ups since the original trio of Siobhan Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan.

Now there are no more original members left but Amelle said there will be no more new faces.
She said: 'Nobody will be leaving and we won't be getting anyone new. We've got the perfect lineup. I couldn't ask for a better group of girls. We're like sisters.'
The Saturdays have added their two pennies worth to the debate about the though, saying the girlband should change their name now that none of the original members remain.

'I kind of feel that it's a bit unfair to keep using the Sugababes name if she's not in it. She was the only original member left even though Heidi has been there a long time,' singer Rochelle Wiseman told website Digital Spy.
'You never know what goes on behind the scenes and I don't think we'll ever really get the truth, just what the newspapers say.'
And, asked whether she thinks Sugababes will still be around one year from now, Wiseman cheekily replied: 'Maybe, but they'll probably have three different members!

But she conceeded: 'The new lineup is hot, though. I saw a picture of them and it looks like it's going to be a good video.'
The Saturdays recently released single Ego from second album Wordshaker and were the cover stars of the January issue of men's magazine FHM.
The girls admitted they chose a more conservative look when they first made their assault on the charts.
'We played it safe before because people didn't really know us, but now we're taking more risks,' they said.

From The Sunday Times 14.2.2010New body art: Why fashion is going wild for the temporary tattooTransfers, paint, even knitwear — the best thing about the new body art is that it’s temporary. And it won’t hurt a bit(Jason Lloyd Evans)Tattoos are back in fashionEdwina Ings-Chambers Recommend? (1) Even the pop charts are obsessed with it. “You want a temporary tattoo, don’t you?” warble the Sugababes over and over. They may be talking kisses, but the rest of us are talking Chanel, particularly the Chanel temporary tats that were on display at the SS10 catwalk show.

Since then, beauty and fashion mavens have been desperate to get their hands on them, and the waiting list at Selfridges has been off the beauty Richter scale. But the wait is almost over — the transfers go on sale on March 1 at Chanel boutiques and Selfridges London, where a big fashion event is planned to herald their arrival.

Inside a black envelope are 55 tattoos (a bit like the old transfers you used to find in cereal packets, except much, much chicer) depicting pearl bracelets, necklaces, double-C logo earrings and sheafs of wheat, as well as spring blossoms and swallows, all for £49.

“I wanted to play with the Chanel symbols,” explains Peter Philips, the global creative director of make-up. “I placed the tattoos on different parts of the body, in an elegant manner, on the décolleté, the wrists and thighs like a garter.”

Personally, we’re not so keen on rocking the garter look off a catwalk or red carpet — it felt more Cheryl than Chanel — but we are fans of the interlocking Cs, worn as “earrings” on the neck, just behind the earlobe. They last for a couple of days, but if you treat them with care you may well get a week’s worth of loyal service.

Temporary tattoo fever doesn’t stop there. At Rodarte’s SS10 show, they took a slightly different tack, with models boasting Maori-inspired full-sleeve, half-sleeve and neck tattoos that took 40 artists four hours to paint. According to the designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy: “Body art is a huge form of expression. If someone doesn’t want to commit to permanent body art, there are ways of translating the idea through make-up.”

The trend isn’t limited to skin and body painting, and if even make-up seems like going too far, let fashion do it for you. Enter the new knitwear brand Horiyoshi the Third, with every­thing from jumpers and pullovers to T-shirts, scarves and leggings all covered with tattoo images. The patterns come courtesy of the Yokahama-based ­Hori­yoshi, who is considered to be the last living practitioner of the ­Japanese art of ­irezumi (full-body tattoos). The label was started by Steve Suk, himself a dedicated Horiyoshi client, who aimed to bring the ­master’s “artwork and level of quality” to people other than tattoo fans.

“I wanted to bring a level of the sophistication of this Japanese art and Horiyoshi’s work to clothing, to show it in a different medium,” he says. Also championing the body-art-as-knitwear theme is Sam Pemberton and her label, Secret Circus, which produces cashmere hoodies, jumpers, dresses, scarves and leather jackets featuring tattoo ­images. Fans include Fergie, Megan Fox and Heidi Klum. “When I saw the spring Chanel show, I realised we also fell into this new category of body art,” Pemberton says. “It’s the feeling of regal meets rock’n’roll.”

• Horiyoshi the Third, at Matches and Browns; horiyoshi-thethird.com. Secret Circus, from £175, from The Library;secretcircusclothing.com

The end of the line

Pip McCormac

Nothing in fashion has ever been permanent, so the current craze for tattoos is baffling. Almost every starlet from Rihanna to Lily uses their body as a canvas. Peaches Geldof has covered her body in 20 such adorable slogans, but will her love for them last much longer than her marriage?

My own love affair with body art was short-lived. It was 1999. I was travelling in southeast Asia on my gap year, getting my first whiff of independence. I decided I needed a memento to evoke this profound period in my life, and what said grown-up better than an inky black scar on my left biceps?

Back home, as my tan faded, so did my fondness for the tattoo. Gradually, I began to feel ashamed of it — I felt it marked me out as common. I considered getting it erased, but a friend who had tried laser removal still had a raised green sword-shaped mark on her shoulder.

Then I heard about Rejuvi. Created 10 years ago by a scientist in LA, this miracle cream bonds to the ink in a tattoo, drawing it out. Oxford Skin Clinics brought it to the UK two years ago, and have since opened 10 surgeries nationwide, as the demand is so high. “We get everyone from squaddies with big military tattoos to women getting rid of their fashion markings,” says Stuart Harrison, the company’s founder.

I booked a patch test. It hurt like hell. With a tiny needle, the therapist punctured little holes all over my tattoo and swabbed the cream just under the skin. Black scabs started to form as the cream bonded with the ink and the skin started to heal. Pretty it ain’t. As the scab began to disappear, I was dismayed to see my tattoo was as present as ever. “There are no rules as to how long it will take,” the therapist told me. “It depends on how old and how deep it is, the quality of the ink, even the design.”

I have to wait eight weeks between treatments, to allow the skin to heal enough to take another puncturing, and am on my fourth go. It looks patchy, but the skin showing through is unscarred and fresh. “You’ll probably always be able to see where it was,” the therapist warned, “but nobody else will notice it.”

I’m glad it’s not an instant process. Tattoos are a commitment and it should never be too easy to break up.

About Me

Followers

The Jade Ewen Story so far...

Jade Almarie Louise Ewen (born 24 January 1988) is an English singer, songwriter, actress and member of the Sugababes. Ewen began her singing career in the girl group Trinity Stone signed to Sony BMG in 2005, but they disbanded in 2007 with no album released. In 2009, she represented the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest performing the Andrew Lloyd Webber / Diane Warren penned "It's My Time" after winning the UK national selection. She achieved 5th place, cementing her as the most successful British Eurovision act since 2002. She replaced Keisha Buchanan in the Sugababes in September 2009, while at the time still signed to Polydor Records.

Ewen was born and brought up in Plaistow, London, to a Jamaican mother, Carol and a Scottish-Sicilian father, Trevor. Trevor is blind and partially deaf, while Carol is partially blind. Ewen was a carer to both her parents and two younger siblings, Shereen and Kiel.She received a scholarship to the Sylvia Young Theatre School. As a student at Sylvia, she appeared in The Bill, Casualty and Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle.Ewen also won the part of Nala in The Lion King at the West End at the age of twelve. Ewen appeared in the children's dance DVD, entitled How To Dance. She also featured briefly in the video for pop rock band Busted's "What I Go to School For".

Between 2003 and 2004 she appeared in the Australian series Out There. In 2005, Ewen became a member of the girl group Trinity Stone which was signed to Sony BMG. The group disbanded in 2007. She later recorded with rapper Kwamé, who was impressed with her work on MySpace. She released a digital single, "Got You" in 2008 under Kwame's Make Noise label. Ewen co-wrote the song "A Little Bit" for the girl group Booty Luv and also "Let Me Be Me" for Jessica Mauboy. In early 2009, Ewen acted in the first episode of the series, Myths.

In January 2009, Ewen was approached and participated in the UK national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. She was eventually selected to represent the UK with the song "It's My Time" composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber who accompanied her on piano onstage. Ewen was signed with Polydor Records in February and began working on her debut album. In May Ewen finished in fifth place, the highest placing for the United Kingdom since 2002.

In September 2009, it was announced that Ewen had joined the Sugababes as the replacement for Keisha Buchanan.While her second single, "My Man" had been released in the same week, promotional activities for the single were cancelled. Although the single still managed to reach #35 in the charts. In an interview with the BBC, Ewen confirmed her commitment to the Sugababes as her main priority and that her solo album was put on hold. "About a Girl" later debuted at number eight in the UK. Sweet 7 was released in early 2010 after multiple delays from late 2009, and charted at #14 on the UK albums chart. In late 2010 Jade was revealed as the new face of Miss Ultimo lingerie, modelling the lingerie fashion lines Autumn/Winter collection for 2010.

A Brief History of The Sugababes

Sugababes are an English pop girl group based in London, consisting of members Heidi Range, Amelle Berrabah and Jade Ewen. The Guinness Book of World Records have named the Sugababes as the most successful female act of the 21st century with six UK number one singles and eighteen UK top ten hits.

Sugababes were formed in 1998 by founding members Siobhán Donaghy, Mutya Buena and Keisha Buchanan. In 2001, after just one album and some initial success, Donaghy departed and the introduction of Range in the same year was met with the commercial success. The group survived a second line-up change in December 2005, when Buena left the band and was subsequently replaced by Berrabah. In September 2009, it was confirmed that after eleven years in the band, Buchanan was no longer part of the group and had been replaced by Jade Ewen.